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Cultural Gender Norms and Neighbourhood Exposure: Impacts on the Gender Gap in Math

Ericsson, Sanna LU (2020) In Working papers
Abstract
This paper investigates the interaction between cultural norms and neighbourhood characteristics. I estimate the effect of cultural gender norms on the gender gap in math, and explore whether this effect is mitigated by municipality gender equality. I use high-quality Swedish administrative data on the results of national standardised math tests. To separate the effect of cultural gender norms from formal institutions, I estimate the effect of mothers' source-country gender norms on the gender gap in math for second-generation immigrants. By contrasting the outcomes of opposite-sex siblings, I show that the sibling gender gap in math increases with mothers' adherence to traditional gender norms; such that girls with more gender-traditional... (More)
This paper investigates the interaction between cultural norms and neighbourhood characteristics. I estimate the effect of cultural gender norms on the gender gap in math, and explore whether this effect is mitigated by municipality gender equality. I use high-quality Swedish administrative data on the results of national standardised math tests. To separate the effect of cultural gender norms from formal institutions, I estimate the effect of mothers' source-country gender norms on the gender gap in math for second-generation immigrants. By contrasting the outcomes of opposite-sex siblings, I show that the sibling gender gap in math increases with mothers' adherence to traditional gender norms; such that girls with more gender-traditional mothers perform worse relative to their brothers. To investigate whether the cultural gender norm effect can be mitigated by municipality gender equality, I exploit a refugee placement policy to obtain random variation in municipality characteristics. I show that municipality gender equality can almost completely mitigate the negative cultural norm effect. Taken together, my results imply that while cultural gender norms play an important role for the gender gap in math, they are not immune to the effects of neighbourhood exposure. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
cultural gender norms, math gender gap, epidemiological approach, refugee placement policy, sibling fixed effects, I21, I24, J15, J16, Z13
in
Working papers
issue
2020:6
pages
58 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d9dafc87-e359-4a3a-8882-911ae4ee4e9b
alternative location
https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_006.htm
date added to LUP
2020-04-27 11:17:23
date last changed
2020-04-27 11:17:23
@misc{d9dafc87-e359-4a3a-8882-911ae4ee4e9b,
  abstract     = {{This paper investigates the interaction between cultural norms and neighbourhood characteristics. I estimate the effect of cultural gender norms on the gender gap in math, and explore whether this effect is mitigated by municipality gender equality. I use high-quality Swedish administrative data on the results of national standardised math tests. To separate the effect of cultural gender norms from formal institutions, I estimate the effect of mothers' source-country gender norms on the gender gap in math for second-generation immigrants. By contrasting the outcomes of opposite-sex siblings, I show that the sibling gender gap in math increases with mothers' adherence to traditional gender norms; such that girls with more gender-traditional mothers perform worse relative to their brothers. To investigate whether the cultural gender norm effect can be mitigated by municipality gender equality, I exploit a refugee placement policy to obtain random variation in municipality characteristics. I show that municipality gender equality can almost completely mitigate the negative cultural norm effect. Taken together, my results imply that while cultural gender norms play an important role for the gender gap in math, they are not immune to the effects of neighbourhood exposure.}},
  author       = {{Ericsson, Sanna}},
  keywords     = {{cultural gender norms; math gender gap; epidemiological approach; refugee placement policy; sibling fixed effects; I21; I24; J15; J16; Z13}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2020:6}},
  series       = {{Working papers}},
  title        = {{Cultural Gender Norms and Neighbourhood Exposure: Impacts on the Gender Gap in Math}},
  url          = {{https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_006.htm}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}